UCLA Academic Standards: Statistics and Data

Constantly Brian Dohn over at the UCLA blog and other members of the media have stated that one of the problems with UCLA recruiting is that the academic standards are much higher than most teams in the Pac-10 and the nation.

Actually, according to Dohn, UCLA has the highest academic standards aside from Stanford and Notre Dame in Division I.

I know our friends over at the California Bears blog get angry about this, and people often attack Dohn's blog saying that UCLA is merely making up excuses, but Jon Wilner at College Sports Hotline wrote a piece of Pac-10 admissions data and the results are not surprising.

He actually breaks down the differences between UCLA and Cal as follows:

*** Football

Cal average GPA: 2.93
UCLA average GPA: 3.15

Cal average SAT: 984
UCLA average SAT: 990

As you can see, the SATs are basically the same, but UCLA’s average GPA is 8-10 percent higher.

What has always struck me about these figures — and the differential in men’s basketball is even greater (see below) — isn’t the raw numbers but the relative numbers.

Shouldn’t the flagship school of the UC be at least as tough, if not tougher, than its little sister?

He even goes on the point out the differences in basketball, which, to no surprise, follow a similiar trend:

*** Men’s basketball

Cal average GPA: 2.60
UCLA average GPA: 2.91

Cal average SAT: 896
UCLA average SAT: 935

If you would like to see the rest of the Pac-10 you can check out the article here.

It's nice to see some quantitative results to back up what we have continually been told by media members and UCLA officials.

Also, it is no surprise that our LA neighbors over near Exposition Park are resting in the bottom half of the Pac-10 in GPA and right in the middle for SAT. However, let me point out that USC does not calculate GPA like most prestigious academic institutions.

Most universities take the best overall score. So if you took the SAT three times, they would only count the highest score for the entire exam. USC however, will take the highest scores on each section and mix and match them in order to produce the highest score possible. This is a tactic used in order to have higher average SAT scores to help rise in the US News college rankings and which is why their SAT placement in the Pac-10 is not in the bottom like their GPA standing.